Results from ASD study to be released in April

Those
were some of the words used to describe the Aspen School District and the
people who run it at a community forum last week, as the campuses’ climate and
culture study enters its final stages.

The
study is being carried out by Wilson Foxen, a Denver consulting firm the Board
of Education hired in December to examine the purported problems — from faculty
morale to a lack of trust in the administration — among staff members of the
Aspen School District.

On
Thursday at the Pitkin County Library, during the second of two community
forums held last week, consultant Liz Wilson said the study’s results will be
made available in April.

By
April 1, Wilson said she will have debriefed the Board of Education about her
findings. Wilson also said she expects to fill in the study’s advisory group as
well as the district’s staff and the community during the first week of April.

Meanwhile,
last week’s community meetings drew modest crowds — roughly 25 people attended
the March 12 meeting and about 18 were there Thursday — that were split into
focus groups.

In
a round-robin format, participants were asked, among other things, what makes
them most proud of the school district, what concerns them most, and how they
describe cultures of the district, the Board of Education, the district office
and other aspects.

Their
responses varied, ranging from the wide educational offerings availed to Aspen
students to concerns about teacher retention.

“I
do hear some similarities and obviously some differences,” said Wilson as she
fielded the participants’ answers.

The
district’s leadership culture generated such descriptions as lacking
transparency and a coherent vision, while some noted it for its effective
leadership.

Concerns
about the district overall included teachers not having a voice or feeling
comfortable expressing their opinions, while both the administration and board
have shown a lack of wanting to listen to their concerns.

Wilson
completed a survey with the school district’s staff Saturday, and she has met
confidentially with members of all of the departments, as well as parents and
others.

The
climate and culture study comes after the school district’s administrative
offices, resulting in the exit of its human resources department’s director and
assistant, and the board’s decision not to renew Superintendent John Maloy’s
contract past its expiration date of June 30, 2021.

“Since
the main focus of this project is workplace culture, we are committed to
providing all employees with the opportunity to share their personal opinions
and experiences,” the Board of Education said in a January statement about the
study. The statement added, “The main priority is to ensure that we have a
culture that supports the mission of the district: educating our students to
their full potential. This project will focus primarily on one aspect of a district’s
culture: the employee experience at all levels and in all functions. There are
several areas we have identified regarding culture and climate that we will
focus on: trust, leadership culture and the workplace culture.”